Tarnished victory
Subtitle: finishing Lincoln's war
By: William Marvel
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Boston
Language: eng
Number of pages: 473
ISBN-13: 9780547428062
Subjects: Campaigns; Military leadership; History
Description: In the course of 1865 the war grows ever more deadly, the home front is stripped to fill the armies, and the economy is crippled by debt and inflation, while the stubborn survival of the Confederacy seriously undermines support for Lincoln's war. In the end, it seems that Lincoln's early critics, who played such a pivotal role in the beginning of the series, are proven correct. Victory did require massive bloodshed and complete conquest of the South. It also required decades of occupation to cement the achievements of 1865, and the ultimate failure of Lincoln's political heirs to carry through with that occupation squandered the most commendable of those achievements, making it ultimately a tarnished victory.